Last Updated on September 14 2024, 3:22 pm

As Formula One land rolled into Baku, all the talk was about how McLaren would handle the Lando Norris chase down of Max Verstappen. McLaren had finally woken up to the fact that F1 racing is a tough business and the team decided to instigate team orders on Oscar Piastri should it mean helping his team mate.

Throughout the weekend Piastri had struggled relative to his team mate but come qualifying it was the Aussie who claimed a front row position.

In the first qualifying session McLaren decided to hold back Norris final run to the last minute given the track was rubbering in quickly and the times getting quicker lap by lap. Yet a mistake from Alpine’s Esteban Ocon coming into the final 2km section saw the Frenchman hit the wall and suffer a puncture.

 

 

 

FIA confusion with white/yellow warnings

Ocon immediately cut the apex and was well clear of the racing line as he limped along the final straight. With Norris closing in race control displayed yellow caution light which Norris saw and slowed accordingly which saw him eliminated in Q1. Lando will start the race in P17 barring any other grid penalties being issued by the FIA.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the session, the McLaren driver said: “Everyone did their second laps and I didn’t. It was unlucky, that’s all. I had to lift. It is what it is. There’s a long race ahead, we have some good tyres in the bank. I’m still hopeful we can get a good result. I think the car is quick. Bit frustrating, but nothing I can do.”

However, TV replay’s showed the Marshall covering the affected section of the circuit displayed a WHITE flag which informs the drivers of a slow moving car – but there is no obligation to slow under a white flag given that Ocon was a long way off the racing line.

As Norris crossed the line in P17, his engineer said over team radio, “sorry” while Lando was understandably silent. Norris was asked after the race whether team orders would be issued by McLaren to help him during the race. The British driver was dismissive replying, “No, that would be stupid.”

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Norris hopeful of strategy recovery

Lando explained he hoped they would be able to improve his position through strategy in the Grand Prix on Sunday, “because you can’t overtake.” Typically drivers get stuck in a DRS train along the main straight meaning each car is towing the next in line but none has the extra speed to make a pass.

“There’s plenty of cars at the back which just take all the wing off and hope for the best, and that makes it impossible for a lot of cars to overtake them,” Norris added.

“The car is quick, we can hope that that can come into our hands and at some point I can get clean air, but on a street circuit, everything gets backed up so much, you just get forced into a position and you can’t do a lot at times.

“We’ll hope for the best, but I don’t expect anything that’s real, unless strategy comes into play.”

Lando Norris lost points looking crucial

 

 

 

McLaren boss questions FIA

Meanwhile the McLaren team boss appeared bemused as to why the FIA had deployed the yellow flags at all. Andreas Stella had not yet seen the footage where a marshal’s flag conflicted with the lights deployed by race control and so the controversy will deepen.

Norris did make a small mistake exiting turn 16, but his team principal does not believe this contributed to his early exit from qualifying. 

“Then we found the yellow flag,” said Stella. “We were discussing at the end of the session with the FIA as to why the yellow flag was displayed, because that was only a slow car going up like with no safety implications. So we are puzzled as to why the yellow flag was displayed,” he told F1TV following the session.

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Gasly under investigation

Meanwhile Alpine are facing calls of ‘cheating’ as Pierre Gasly’s car is under investigation for a spike in the fuel flow rate as monitored by the FIA. The regulation is designed to prevent the teams from using extra fuel at the start of a long straight to improve acceleration and making the entire fuel flow system extra complicated. 

As with speeding in the pit lane, this kind of FIA notification almost invariably results in a slam dunk penalty which should see Gasly disqualified from the session and start either back of the grid or in the pitlane depending on how Alpine decide to rectify the situation.

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Williams called to the stewards

Alex Albon and Williams have also been summoned to the stewards for an unsafe release during Q3 in Baku qualifying. Albon’s car was seen leaving the pit lane with an air cooler attached to his roller inlet. The Williams driver pulled to the side and removed the fan crucially without outside assistance which would have seen him disqualified.

The stewards are now considering the matter as a breach of article 34.14 of the F1 sporting regulations: releasing the car in an unsafe condition.

As it turned out Albon was unable to reach the chequered flag in time for a final push lap and he was pipped to P9 by his rookie team mate, Franco Colapinto.

Red Bull upset with Newey announcement – with consequences

 

 

 

Alonso admits he may be ousted before driving a Newey winning Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso is the senior statesman on the current Formula One grid. The double world champion has not always made the best moves from team to team during his 24 years in the sport and now even though he will be in the first Newey designed Aston Martin, that may not be good enough to see the Spaniard become a triple F1 world champion.

At forty three years of age, Fernando will be 45 when his existing contract expires at the end of 2026. Yet he will drive that year the first Newey conceived Aston Martin under the all new F1 car and power unit regulations. After that, Alonso admits he may join the Aston Martin endurance racing programme as his F1 career comes to an end.

Newey will start work for the Silverstone based F1 team in March next year, but this will be too late to have much impact on their 2025 F1 car given the design is usually finalised not long after the final race of the year and the focus turns to production of what is in effect a brand new prototype car with some 15,000 components… READ MORE